Blank Belfast City Council fly the Union flag 365 days a year from City Hall. St Patrick’s Day is one of a few special days when they also fly the Union Flag from the Ulster Hall and the Duncrue Complex. This isn’t the choice of an individual councillor, this is council policy. It doesn’t attract any interest from the media. Numerous other Government buildings across the north also use St Patrick’s Day as one of the days when they can display …
Photos from wherever tagged for the day on Flickr: Some places you might get stuck in traffic or have some craic. Twitter comment RTE updates And for those looking a hardcore traditional Irish experience, Belfast has a concert with Lemar and Stacey Solomon. The All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling and Football finals on TG4 O’Loughlin Gaels (Kilkenny) v Clarinbridge (Galway) 2pm St Brigid’s (Roscommon) v Crossmaglen Rangers (Armagh) 3.45pm BBC2 have the MacRory Cup – St. Colmans Newry v St. Patricks …
Thanks to irishrepublican.net for photographs of British military vehicles on the streets of Creggan yesterday. Some republicans hailed the ending of the British Army’s longest deployment, Operation Banner in 2007. Others knew British Army missions in Ireland had been merely renamed Helvetic to reflect hopes of a normalised population: In their usual astounding display of chutzpah Sinn Fein have produced a T-shirt depicting the IRA expelling a Brit soldier, claiming that the ending of ‘Operation Banner’ (the deployment of troops …
Mick is on the road again and will be feeding in content when he can. In the meantime he has asked that I open the liveblog. It is only following a few twitter feeds so your comments don’t get buried. If you spot any hot twitter feed we should include let me know. Election 2011 Updated with some links: Independent live blog RTE page Irish Times live blog The Journal Wikipedia page linking to each constituency Politics.ie Blank
The Rubberbandits are back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FiKME7LAW8&feature=player_embedded While we are at it: And a history lesson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBT4ZWy6Lm4 Blank
Their wee country (Norn Iron) comes to Dublin with their wee ‘supporters’ award?
Though the Republican Network for Unity have consistently disassociated themselves from direct connection with an armed group since their inception they have always been pretty unambiguous in supporting the right to armed struggle The RNU does not have a military wing or military objectives. We acknowledge the right of the Irish people to resist British rule using a wide range of tactics, including armed struggle. At their last Ard Fheis they restated this but also sent greetings to Óglaigh Na …
I’m not a fan of opinion polls. I like real numbers. Here’s a pointless little graph that relies on real numbers. If I’ve done it wrong put me right. Blue = candidates per party as a percentage of seats available 2007 Red = successful candidates as a percentage of seats available 2007 Yellow = candidates per party as a percentage of seats available 2011 Green = candidate numbers in 2011 compared to 2007 successes Blank
As we noted, at éirígí’s last Ard Fheis, they stated they would be making an ‘intervention’ in northern electoral politics. I recently suggested 22 council areas dissenting republicans considering electoral intervention could look at. Today, éirígí announced their candidates. A full two and it seems unlikely they will announce more. Two candidates, across 582 seats. That’s contesting 0.3% of the game at council level Some electoral ‘intervention’. Blank
With éirígí having declared they will be engaging in electoralism at council level while rejecting it at Stormont (on grounds of ideology, not because they’d get totally tanked) and the IRSP expected to announce a similar return to council level electoralism in the north (also ignoring Stormont for ideological reasons, not fear of getting spanked) and expectations of an independent republican council candidate in Newry and the odd two in Fermanagh – I thought I’d run my eye over the …
Carál Ní Chuilín, MLA and Gerry Kelly, MLA are both open and proud on their previous membership of a now defunct branch of Óglaigh na hÉireann. Both served prison sentences for bombing campaigns in areas mainly used by ‘civilians’ on behalf of that IRA. When the most recent in a long line of British ‘Chief Constables’ controlling policing in the north of Ireland needed a comparative for the recent extended disruption on the Antrim Road, he choose the Omagh bomb. …
An idyllic island reliant on tourism from across the world but with a population increasingly impoverished. A young woman just starting out on life with a new partner brutally murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Breda Waters & Des Kelly’s murders aren’t getting much coverage – they were from Limerick and not related to anyone of note. Limerick has been heading murder statistics for a long time and when they happen now they rarely receive …
Bertie Ahern has retired from public life, like many of his colleagues will shortly do against their will, in front of the people that brought him into political life – the O’Donovan Rossa Cumann, he joined 40 years ago He made a long speech to friends, make of it what you will: Today it is hard, and for some it seems impossible, to keep faith with Ireland’s tomorrow. I know and I understand that now we are in the eye …
We’ve experienced one of the longest and deepest cold spells for decades. Mooch has been tracking the effects for those in the big city and Kilsally has done a parrrellel blog on how awful things are for country people. On twitter Martin McAuley has been heading up the blame NI Water campaign. Though going back to basics it was just extreme cold, burst pipes, water drained from the system and websites finding it difficult to cope with exceptional demand. When …
I’d hazard a guess the SDLP’s Margaret Ritchie impact on the southern electorate’s consciousness is somewhere just above that of Tom Elliott and a fair way below Peter Robinson’s. Despite that and declaring “she had no wish to interfere” in the forthcoming election there she has done exactly that with an attempt to damage Sinn Féin’s vote (no mention of Fianna Fail and their destruction of the economy?): We in the SDLP want good relations with the three main parties, …
Christmas messages run through Wordle. Does what they say a lot, say a lot? DUP Christmas, God’s, Northern, Ireland, birth Sinn Féin Sinn, Féin, Ág, águs, leis UUP Northern, Ireland, Unionist, People, party SDLP: No Christmas message as yet Alliance: No Christmas message as yet Blank
Ben “I took no counselling and looking back that was not a wise thing to do” Dunne has long been a controversial voice on the Irish airwaves and the unlinkable Irish News and unlistenable Nolan show have picked up on his interview with Thursday’s NewsTalk (at approx 42mins): I’d love to see change, I hope SF’s vote increases because I think those people will make radical changes. They will change the school boy network any way.. I want people that …
I see Pete has flagged this between me starting the draft and getting home but I’ll add my take regardless. Several weeks back I noted Gerry Adams would find it no problem to become a candidate in Louth but may find it more difficult to become an elector. In order to be able to vote at an election or referendum, a person’s name must be entered on the register of electors for the locality in which the elector ordinarily resides. …
Quote from twitter: ‘Superman has Pearse Doherty pyjamas’
